The 11 Hottest New Cars Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show

Alfa Romeo 4C Spider

With its combination of lightweight, curvaceous styling, affordable price, and bombastic power, we named Alfa’s 4C as the car we’re most looking forward to driving in 2014. Vehicular purists and people with tangle-prone hair tend to prefer the austerity of closed coupes, but we live for joy and boast an impervious Jew-fro, so this new drop-top “Spider” version sings to our pleasure receptors louder and more mellifluously than an island full of Sirens.

Audi S1

In America, size matters. And here, small tends to equate with less expensive. Because of this blind fetish for bigger hammers, we’re deprived of thrilling vehicles like this sportiest version of the teensiest of Audis, despite its being stuffed with advanced technology, explosive power, sharp design, and precisely the kind of outrageous exterior colors befitting our extroverted national image.

BMW 4-Series Gran Coupé

We were frequently penalized by our algebra teacher for failing to show our work, so we won’t critique the seemingly fuzzy math of BMW’s new naming rules—where supposedly even-numbered model designations (2-Series, 4-Series) signify two-door cars. See, this 4-Series has four doors. Why not? It’s an elegant solution, no matter the math.

Ferrari California T

Some of our car critic colleagues have had a hard time accepting the Ferrari California. Eternal fans of the maligned, we took one on a 1,000-mile road trip to Buffalo, and found it a delightful partner. This new version amps up the sport with an explosive twin-turbo engine (Ferrari’s first since the 90s) and sharper styling. We expect we’ll like this one, too.

Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake

In addition to limiting our access to small premium cars, our nation’s illogical obsession for scale also favors hulking crossovers over efficient and nimble station wagons. So even though this Jaguar estate—a be-hatched derivation of one of our favorite sports sedans—couples an outrageous high-performance power plant with luxury accommodations and room for hauling everything you own, it won’t be coming here. This puts a grrr in our Jag-loving purr.

Lamborghini Huracán

We told you about the latest “entry level” 610-horsepower, V-10-powered Lambo a few months back when it was first revealed. Now we’ve had a chance to see it in its impossibly angular “flesh,” and . . . you know that dream where you, and only you, hear an inexplicable buzzing in your head, and you can’t shake or locate it, only to realize later that your skull has been colonized by an aggressive hive of parasitic hornets? This is the vehicular equivalent.

Maserati Alfieri

Our beloved Italian brand is on a major product offensive, en route to selling an order of magnitude more cars in the next few years—from 5,000 annually to 50,000. Maserati has already released a mid-size sports sedan, the Ghibli, to supplement their large Quattroporte, and planned a luxury S.U.V. Now, its surprised us with this curvaceous sports-car concept, which probably looks more like what most people think of when they hear the name Maserati. We’ll take the whole stable.

McLaren 650S

McLarens are exacting and perform flawlessly. Yet this intense rationality can make the brand’s vehicles feel dispassionate, a certain visceral emotionality being requisite in a super-car. We’ve driven the MP4-12C on the track and up twisty mountain roads and found it wonderfully engaging, if less than dynamic looking. This upgraded replacement adds flair—and flare, particularly around the nose—that has us softly humming Jay Gorney and Sidney Clare’s “You’re My Thrill.”

Mercedes S-Class Coupe

We’ve long worshiped the big, range-topping two-door Benzes, a category that includes 60 years of exquisite coupes and convertibles. This is Mercedes’s latest flagship, and it has all of the elegant and imposing presence, potency, and power-operated everything required of an executive-level autobahn dominator. Mercedes has found its way out of its recent stylistic tangle; this car completes a near-complete revival. (Now if Mercedes would just update its ungainly SL convertible!)

Rinspeed XchangE Concept

What would happen if you took a Tesla Model S—a paradigm-breaking electric car that beats the best gas sport sedans on the market—and adapted it for the near future of self-driving cars? According to Swiss auto tuner Rinspeed, it would look like a first-class airline cabin with a retractable steering wheel, reversible reclining seats, and an Internet-enabled L.C.D. screen in place of the rear windshield. Is it driving? No. Is it cool? Yes.

Volvo Wagon Concept

The name Volvo was once synonymous with station wagons, but most of the vehicles the Chinese-owned Swedes sell in the States today are ungainly crossovers. We hope that will change, now that its curvaceous mid-size V60 wagon has hit dealerships, and its shown this chiseled, glass-roofed, technologically and visually dazzling three-door “shooting brake” concept that’s likely to resemble the carmaker’s next full-size five-door wagon. Wagons, ho!

Five More Cars That Aren’t Expensive, But Don’t Suck

1)Jeep Renegade: So cute, you just want to pinch its rock-hard abs. 2)Nissan Juke: Updated, yet still delightfully weird. 3)Mazda Hazumi Concept: Presaging the next Mazda2, one of our favorite cars to recommend to poor people. 4)Ford Focus: One of America’s best small cars, now with more grille. 5)Honda Civic Type R Concept: From the rear, this resembles precisely our second-favorite Garagemekkan character, an irresistible, lethargic robot bear named Austin.